Hong Kong Cage people
The horrible plight of Hong Kong's poor
Near Hong Kong's Kowloon shopping district the city's poor suffer in squalid conditions. A man crouches in a tiny wire cage hardly bigger than a child's cot. It's been his home for 30 years. He is one of Hong Kong's hidden poor - a worker that nobody wants.
Soaring rents and unemployment have forced an increasing number of people below the poverty line. While the rich business elite of Hong Kong line their pockets, state-welfare is still a dirty word. Despite the government's budget surplus there is no minimum wage or unemployment benefit. Meanwhile inflation, together with cheap Chinese workers, threatens to force more and more people out of work. Waiting lists for housing can be seven years and suicide rates are high. Dignity is an important concept for the Chinese and many regard a caged existence as hardly worth living.
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